Problems With Our Broseley Thermo Suprema

The heating engineers came at the end of October and nearly two months on, we are all stood in our kitchen scratching our heads, the two guys from the fitting company and the sales rep from Broseley. Our new Thermo Suprema overheated whilst on the cooker function and it keeps losing pressure in the boiler. There are no signs of leaks, though we have had a condensation problem (maybe there is a leak in the boiler, a micro crack but no one knows, we all just lose sleep over it). Now, don't get me wrong, but in hindsight, gas seems to have been the better and easier option but I know that this is new technology and new bio technologies are not cheap but they are built to last. Though our warranty is only one year and by the time we iron out the bugs we will be out of warranty - this is the nightmare that keeps us awake at night. The thought of our savings all tied up in a hunk of metal that is, at present being like a petulant teenager. Our heating engineers have been great, they have been here when they said they would be. The owner of the company left us his home number, his wife's email and all the mobile numbers he possesses. He has apologised more times than I can count and he has aged with all of us. This is the problem, and we have kept a photographic record of this, laid out below. We fire up the Thermo Suprema with just under one bar of pressure.

You can see this above on the SCWS valve. We then put a small load of wood in to burn to ember coals, as directed in the handbook. The problem is that the water heats up whether on the oven or water setting but if on the fore, the oven barely heats up.

The oven here is on 130 celsius and has dropped from 170 celsius fast, the bread is struggling to cook but tasted great, thanks to Carol who is just a great cook. The rep told that the water should never go higher than 60 degrees but as you see here after a larger load, the water reached 80 degrees. We are using dry wood from Certainly Wood, after an earlier problem with damp wood causing excess condensation. This is a problem that hasn't gone away as we have had a warming drawer full of brownish water. Another problem that is making us scratch our heads.

This is the part where we think we have a bomb in our kitchen. We have only 40 degrees before, as our heating engineer pointed out, we are the first couple to try and send the Thermo Suprema into orbit.

Then after the Thermo Suprema has cooled down we have lost pressure. There are no apparent leaks bar the brownish water and condensation around the base of the oven. We know there is a drip on the SCWS probe valve, there may be other drips on the expansion tank but will that allow the pressure to drop half a bar? The ball is now in Broseley's technical court as the Broseley rep is flummoxed, the heating engineers have put in their order for Christmas lunch and we have moved out. Seriously, we have got to that point, the Broseley wasn't just a lifestyle choice, it was our savings and each time we look at it we feel like fools. In time, we hope this will change and we hope Broseley will help to change that.Broseley in the end did help us, identifying the problem as the pump and lack of sealant in the system. The oven ran with no problems after that.